Adaptive beamforming is a technique of using spatial signal processing to combine signals from an array of antennas to increase signal strength to or from a preferred location. It is used in both transmitting and receiving signals. Spatial signal processing involves determining optimal weights for each signal, or beam, before they are combined and thus maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal sent to or received from a particular direction.
Spatial signal processing may include the use of a covariance matrix, which stores correlation statistics of the variation between signals. Calculating a covariance matrix is very resource intensive for a processing system. For example, for a 4×4 array of 16 elements, 136 correlations must be calculated. This may require significant hardware capability, in other words, multipliers and/or memory. It may also require a powerful common processor or a complicated multiplexing scheme.
Thus, a need exists for simplifying the hardware for calculation of a covariance matrix during adaptive beamforming.